Jobs and services at risk as council considers £2.2m cuts

CALDERDALE Council is set to decide where the axe will fall on services in the public spending squeeze.

On Monday the council's Cabinet will be asked to consider the impact of the Government's grant reductions. It will consider ways of making cuts of the order of 2,245,000.

Of that sum, 1,535,000 will be revenue and the rest (710,000) will come from the council's capital grants for highways works.

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Council leader Janet Battye (Lib Dem, Calder), said: "It is particularly hard to be asked to make these cuts in the middle of a financial year.

''We will do what we can to protect frontline services and jobs but we may have to accept that there will be reductions in both as a result of having very little time to plan for these latest cuts.

"We are already having to find 4.7m worth of savings based on the council's budget set earlier this year and it feels really unfair that the people of Calderdale are now being asked to find yet more."

As a part of the paper to Cabinet, members will be asked to consider a range of options across a broad range of services.

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Of particular concern is the potential impact on the children and young people's service which as a result of the way that Government has targeted the cuts has had a direct reduction in grant of 1,276,000.

Deputy council leader, Tim Swift, (Lab, Town), said: "It doesn't seem to make sense that we are being asked to make these changes now, especially given that many of the grant reductions are in areas that affect services to young people.

We will go through these proposals with a fine tooth comb – the new administration in Calderdale has prioritised areas such as safeguarding and therefore must do all it can to minimise the risk to the improvements we are making.

"We will probably arrange for council to meet as a committee to ensure that all councillors can participate in a full and proper debate over the final proposals. We will of course consult with staff and trade unions to ensure that they are also a part of the hard decisions that will inevitably have to be taken."